I don't think he is joking, but real experience proves otherwise. Grounding
a tower through the concrete base is a non issue. All my 5 towers are
grounded below the 4 ft cube concrete base for over 35 years with no visible
problems.
Doug
-----Original Message-----
Obviously K8UR is joking. My towers have also taken a number of direct
lightning strikes with no visible damage to the concrete base.
john@kk9a.com
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I concur with Bill, K4XS and the others regarding there being no issues with
grounding through a tower base.
Like Bill, I live in Central Florida, the Lightning Capital of the United
States.
I have 5 towers, 4 of them > 110'. All of the towers are grounded
conventionally, but also with a ground rod set into the earth at the bottom
of the base, and the tower connected to that rod.
The bases and towers are quite intact after 20+ years.
This is a profoundly non-issue; time to move on.
73,
Steve
NN4X
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I've had many 200 ft towers over the last 25 years and they have taken
direct hits. None of them has ever had their bases "blown to bits".
Note this is in central FL, the lightning capitol of North America and all
hits have taken place in wet weather.
Bill K4XS/KH7XS
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Why would anyone want to "ground" a tower thru cement?
If the cement is "wet", lightning will conduct thru it, blow it to bits if
it's a large strike, and your tower will float away to Jupiter.
If the cement is "dry", lightning will see it as just a little lossy
insulator, blow it to bits if it's a large strike, and your tower will
float
away to Mars.
Your only hope is not to use cement..., and hope it stays in Earth.
Mitch Mitchell - K8UR
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